New Resources Regarding the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment Services (EPSDT) Benefit in Medicaid

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has new resources explaining the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment services (EPSDT) benefit in Medicaid. The following guides are now available:

EPSDT – A Guide for States: Coverage in the Medicaid Benefit for Children and Adolescents – This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the children’s benefit and summarizes CMS policy on screenings, diagnostic services, and treatment services. It also covers permissible limitations, medical necessity, and access topics.

Keep Kids Smiling: Promoting Oral Health Through the Medicaid Benefit for Children & Adolescents – The second guide explains the dental and oral health dimensions of the EPSDT benefit, and explores a variety of specific ways states can, and have, improved their delivery of dental and oral health services to enrolled children.

Paving the Road to Good Health: Strategies for Increasing Medicaid Adolescent Well-Care Visits – The third guide shares a collection of approaches states can use to better engage adolescents in staying healthy and getting regular check-ups.

CMS has also developed, in partnership with the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), an EPSDT Compendium that is located on the NASHP website. This webpage features information about states’ EPSDT implementation efforts across dimensions such as care coordination, behavioral health, data collection and reporting, oral health, medical necessity, and improving access to care.